tony bennett

Gallery owner Larry Gagosian is excited about the spot paintings he’s bought from Damien Hirst: “You see them in advertisements, on clothes, on cars. They've become part of our visual vocabulary.” Yes, Gagosian’s actually attributing the invention of polka dots to Hirst. [New York Times]

An abandoned love hotel with evidence of squatting (in all senses of the word) makes for a striking visual essay. Its narrator, however, seems to think that disuse is a “unique theme” for a hotel. [TokyoTimes]

Some of us urinate our names in the snow. UK artist Helen Chadwick does not share this talent, but has enough plaster to show off her yellow snow as a ‘relief’ sculpture. [The Guardian]

“It’s Tony Bennett. Why am I naked?” asks Lady Gaga, sketched in charcoal by the singer at Annie Leibovitz’s request in what sounds like either some sort of celebrity Mad Libs or a better round of Truth or Dare than I’ve ever played. [Rolling Stone]

An angry museumgoer and her boyfriend got more than they bargained for at the New Museum. Their personal Höller Experience, aside from the sensory deprivation tank, included ear infections, being ignored on Tumblr, and getting an entire article on Gothamist. [Gothamist]

Fred Wilson’s E Pluribus Unum project, which proposed a recreation of a black male figure from an Indianapolis monument without its original visual references to slavery, is cancelled due to community disapproval. Among the naysayers was a vocal group against visual references to slavery, who apparently just weren’t listening. [ArtInfo]